Wednesday Wisdom – April 6, 2016

April 6, 2016

Dear all

Into April and here’s the wisdom.

A Clear Heart
Donna Schaper
“Create in me a clean heart O God and restore unto me the joy of thy salvation.” – Psalm 51 :10 KJV
A Buddhist scholar, Norman Fischer, has translated this famous verse: “Create in me a clear heart.” Fuzzy, in this translation, is a form of sin and “clear” a form of virtue.
Martin Luther said sin was being “turned in on yourself” or “incurvatus in se.” We imagine that we have the lead in the world’s play, which can’t possibly be true. The earth groans under our self-obsession.
Others say that sin is missing the mark of our true humanity. We behave in ways that demean our creation.
Still others say sin is distance from God. When we aren’t intimate or in primary relationship with the divine, we aren’t dirty so much as distracted. We can’t worship God and Mammon but we sure try. Distance from God is idolatrous: second things become first and refuse to be dethroned.
Imagine how restored our salvation — and God’s creation — would be if we were clear and less focused on ourselves, more intimate with God, and more fully human.

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Being in Relation
To live a “forgiven” life is not simply to live in a happy consciousness of having been absolved. Forgiveness is precisely the deep and abiding sense of what relation—with God or with other human beings—can and should be; and so it is itself a stimulus, an irritant, necessarily provoking protest at impoverished versions of social and personal relations.
Rowan Williams
​Source: Resurrection
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According to Gustavo Gutierrez, to recognize one’s own sin implies also the will to restore broken friendship and leads to asking for forgiveness and reconciliation. The capacity for forgiveness itself creates community.
Elsa Tamez
Source: The Amnesty of Grace

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We are the guardians of His Beauty.
We are the protectors
Of the Sun.
There is only one reason
We have followed God into this world:
To encourage laughter, freedom, dance
And love.
Let a noble cry inside of you speak to me
Saying,
“Hafiz,
Don’t just sit there on the moon tonight
Doing nothing –
Help unfurl my heart into the Friend’s Mind,
Help, Old Man, to heal my wounded wings!”
We are the companions of His Beauty
We are the guardians
Of Truth.
Every man, plant and creature in Existence,
Every woman, child, vein and note
Is a servant of our Beloved –
A harbinger of joy,
The harbinger of
Light.